Autor(es):
Fialho Conde, Antónia 
Data: 2012
Identificador Persistente: http://hdl.handle.net/10174/6917
Origem: Repositório Científico da Universidade de Évora
Assunto(s): Fortification; Modern period; Alentejo; Circulation of Masters and Ideas
Descrição
The question of mobility in architecture or engineering is an ancient process that grows with the rise of the
professional group. History testifies several forms of this mobility (migration, emigration, mission, availability)
and with a direct relationship to the importance of the professional status or the power of political and
economic institutions (public, private, military and civilian, secular and religious). During the modern period,
master architects, engineers and experts in a wide range of other fields travelled all over Europe disseminating
their ideas, and in Portugal specialists of other nationalities had a significant influence. The advent of
gunpowder and greater sophistication in construction techniques meant that the art of fortification came to be
regarded as constituting military engineering. A large number of architects and engineers working in Portugal
from the 16th century followed a geometrical pattern featuring angular bulwarks and regular shapes, and they
were important figures in the training of Portuguese architects and engineers and in Portuguese military
architecture, which ended up be exerting an influence abroad. Around a hundred engineers from abroad
worked in Portugal following the Iberian Union, taking part in operations during the Restoration War (1641-
1668) to reinforce the land border, specially in Alentejo, because the topography of the region made it
vulnerable to attack by land, accounting for the high concentration of fortresses; coastal fortifications were only
reinforced/constructed much later, although some plans were produced during this period. John IV, in 1640, set
up the Council of War and the Border Commission, whose well-defined role was to inspect fortifications and
deal with all questions in this area. The translation of treatises, the national book production in the field, the
richness of maps and imagery produced, are also witness of the vitality and interest aroused by fortifications in
Portugal.
